how to take care of stray lions
by Elizabeth Blossom
Summary: Ned finds himself with an overeager guard dog.


New version. Still based on the same prompt: AU in which Jaime (teenage) follows Ned home to the North after Ned finds him killing Aerys in the throne room with Aerys still ordering "burn them all." Ned's pretty sure lions aren't suppose to be following you around every where like dogs.

Bonus: Disapproving Tywin writting letters for the return of his son.

There's a very good chance that this could end up Jaime/Ned. (I made Brandon alive for reason.) fem!Jon for the hell of it. (Also I have a problem.)

* * *

Without any finesse, Jaime shoved his golden sword through Aerys' back and the Mad King screeched. The sound was high and terrible, singing through the rafters of the Red Keep, and somehow the thought of _This must be what the dragons sounded like_ tore through Jaime's head.

As quickly as he had put the sword through his king's back, he took it out. Aerys fell to the ground and coughed up red-black blood._ Fire and blood,_ Jaime thought distantly. He felt disjointed, that somehow his body and mind had gotten disconnected and then somehow his mind had splintered in tiny pieces. He couldn't believe what he had just done and yet he was supremely aware of it. _That's the price for peace._

The Mad King looked up at him with purple eyes and smiled widely. "Kingslayer," he whispered. "You're a Kingslayer, boy. They'll never let you forget it."

Jaime shook. He could feel himself trembling, but no matter how much he commanded himself to, he couldn't seem to stop. His mind and body were still two separate entities of their own.

Jaime brought his sword up, to do what he had no idea. That knowledge was in some piece of his mind that had long ago left the others. Aerys eyes followed it, the smile not leaving his face. The Mad King knew that his death was coming, Jaime had already killed Rossart and he could not let the city burn. The Mad King seemed content though to simply watch Jaime crash and burn.

Jaime never knew though what he had intended to do. To cut off Aerys head or to slash his throat or to drop his own sword and walk out of the throne room to let Aerys die slowly and painfully or something else entirely.

Ned Stark stopped him.

"Ser Jaime!" he heard the older man yell and both he and Aerys turned to look at him.

Eddard Stark stood in the doorway of the throne, looking more like a king than anyone Jaime had ever seen before. His armor shone brightly and was the color as his eyes, a dark, harsh gray that made you remember every horrible thing you had ever done, though Jaime could only think of one other thing that he had ever done as worse as this in the eyes of the Seven. He wasn't about to stop loving his sister though and with that thought, everything snapped back into clarity.

The Mad King's blood and his weakening laugh. Ned Stark's wide gray eyes. His own trembling and the desperate need to be sick. Jaime turned away from them both and fall to his knees, throwing up what little he had managed to eat over the past few days. He heard Aerys laughter, stronger than before and Jaime just wanted him to die. But no, the Mad King had to haunt him for as long as he possibly could. He began to fall apart again and everything slowly grew distant and far and Jaime stopped wanting Aerys to die and started wanting to die himself. Just before he could come to a definitive plan to do it however, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Jaime looked up into Ned Stark's gray eyes and wondered if the man was going to kill him. That would be wonderful. A Kingslayer shouldn't be allowed to live, and at least it wouldn't be by his own hand. At least Jaime would still end up with that shred of honor in his death. Before he left himself be killed though, he needed to let Ned Stark why he had done it. Why he had forgotten these vows but just might have fulfilled higher ones.

"'Burn them all,' he said. That's what he wanted to do. 'Burn them all.'" Ned Stark's brow furrowed into confusion for only half a second before the meaning must have clicked in his mind and his eyes grew wide and fear grew in them.

Jaime wondered if Stark knew that he had his father's eyes.

Ned Stark turned and looked at Aerys, who was still smiling wildly, his lips stained with blood. "Are you the new king? No matter, I'll defeat you all. I'll become a dragon reborn, and I'll make you the king of ashes, Stark." Aerys began to laugh again and Jaime raised his hands to his ears. The sound was too terrible, too mocking for him to listen to any longer. He kept his eyes on the Mad King though, and somehow without sound, it seemed even worse.

But then Ned Stark drew his sword, Valyrian steel that glinted like ice in the sun before it begins to melt, a dark gray like his eyes, and took Aerys head off his shoulder. No words were spoken, though Jaime would have doubted he would have heard them if they were.

For a moment, the only sound in the throne room was their heavy breathing and then Ned Stark sheathed his sword, still wet with the Mad King's blood and walked out.

Jaime just watched him go.


End file.
